Professor’s research focus for BBC Radio 4 programme

4 January 2008

The work of Professor Sean Street from our Media School features on BBC Radio 4’s “Archive Hour”.

This Saturday (5 January) on BBC Radio 4 at 8pm, Professor of Radio, Sean Street presents a one-hour programme on pre-war commercial radio.

“The Archive Hour: God, Pirates and Ovaltineys” discusses commercial radio, the BBC and the cultural and technical battle between them. The programme is based on research gathered for Professor Street's book “Crossing the Ether” (John Libbey, 2006).

This edition of “The Archive Hour” documents the debate between public service broadcasting and commercial interests, which goes back to the beginnings of the medium in the 1930s.

Between the 1920s and the outbreak of World War 2, radio listening in Britain was a battlefield fought on one hand by the paternalistic BBC, and on the other by Europe-based commercial stations such as Radio Normandy, Radio Luxembourg and Radio Toulouse.

These early commercial stations broadcast populist English language programmes which were sponsored. They developed huge audiences, especially among the working class population of Britain, and particularly on Sundays, which for the BBC remained “The Lord’s Day”.

“The League of Ovaltineys,” the famous children’s show broadcast on Sunday afternoons, was the commercial answer to a public longing for entertainment, and it drew vast audiences. Professor Street's Radio 4 feature will also include the playing of the famous Ovaltine advert that accompanied this programme.

“God, Pirates and Ovaltineys” explores for the first time the importance of the tension between the BBC and commercial stations and describes the cultural and technical revolution in sound broadcasting in the 1930s.

It also features many rare recordings, including an interview with David Newman, who, at 92 years old, is the last surviving voice from Pre-War Radio Normandy.